Willamette Industries, Inc. was a

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

forest products company based in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

.Willamette Industries Donates Critical Habitats to The Nature Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

. Retrieved March 24, 2008. In 2002, the

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

and

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distribu ...

company was purchased by competitor

Weyerhaeuser Weyerhaeuser () is an American timberland company which owns nearly of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company also manufactures wood products. It operates as a real e ...

of Federal Way, Washington in a hostile buyout and merged into Weyerhaeuser's existing operations.

History

Willamette Industries was founded in

Dallas, Oregon Dallas is a city and the county seat of Polk County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,854 at the 2020 census. Dallas is along Rickreall Creek, about west of Salem, at an elevation of above sea level. It is part of the Salem Met ...

, in 1906 as the Willamette Valley Lumber Company.Manning, Jeff. "The past Willamette Industries charges ahead". ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'', June 25, 2000. Louis Gerlinger, Sr. was president of the new company and H.L. Pittock, vice president.

George T. Gerlinger George T. Gerlinger was influential in the railroad and lumber products business in the U.S. state of Oregon in the early 20th century. The oldest son of Louis Gerlinger, Sr., in 1902 he organized a group of investors in Dallas, Oregon to build rai ...

served as secretary and manager while F.W. Leadbetter was treasurer. George Cone served as director and mill superintendent. In 1967, this company and several others merged to become Willamette Industries.Willamette Industries SEC 10K for 1999.
Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 24, 2008. The next year the company went public. The company continued to grow through acquisitions, including purchasing Bohemia, Inc. in 1991, which at the time was one of the largest lumber companies in Oregon. By 1999 it had grown to 14,000 employees with $4 billion in annual revenues and more than 100 facilities across the United States.

Products

Wells Fargo Center (2012), Portland, Oregon

Willamette had three operating divisions.Willamette Industries - WLL- Profile.
Business.com. Retrieved March 24, 2008. A brown paper division produced bag paper, paper bags,

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light b ...

, and liner board. The white paper segment made hardwood market pulp, business forms, and uncoated free sheets. The building materials unit manufactured lumber,

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

, fiberboard,

particleboard Particle board, also known as chipboard or low-density fiberboard, is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood chips and a synthetic resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed and extruded. Particle board is often confused with ...

, and laminated veneer lumber products. Customers were located in the US, Asia, and Europe.

Environment

In July 2000, the company was fined a then record $11.2 million by the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

(EPA) for violations of the Clean Air Act. As part of a settlement with the EPA and the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, Willamette also was required to spend an additional $74 million on pollution abatement at 13 factories.Frieden, Terry
"Willamette Industries settles pollution claims with $11.2 million fine."
CNN.com, July 21, 2000. Retrieved March 24, 2008. In May 2001, the company donated habitat to

in the form of permanent conservation easements. The total amount of land 1,740 acres (7.0 km²) with a value of $1.5 million.

Buyout

Beginning in 1998

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

-based competitor Weyerhaeuser contacted Willamette Industries about combining the companies."BusinessWire: Weyerhaeuser Sends Letter to Willamette Regarding Potential Synergies"
/ref> At that time Willamette management did not entertain any of these proposals. On November 13, 2000, Weyerhaeuser began an unsolicited bid to purchase Willamette through a

tender offer In corporate finance, a tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corp ...

, for $5.3 billion in cash, plus the assumption of $1.7 billion in debt, or $48.00 a share, a 38% premium to Willamette's Friday, November 11, closing stock price. The shares in Willamette went up 32.7% on Monday, November 13.Weyerhaeuser filing.
Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 24, 2008. Willamette fought this hostile take-over bid. On November 29 Weyerhaeuser upped the price to $48 a share, or $5.4 billion. Willamette rejected this offer also. On December 22, 2000, Weyerhaeuser announced that it had launched a proxy fight to oust four directors of Willamette Industries, in order to get the board to vote in its favor. The offer was extended on January 5, 2001 to February 1, and on February 1, 2001, Weyerhaeuser learned that a majority of the shareholders favored the merger, with 51% of shares outstanding tendered. Weyerhaeuser secured three of the four board seats in the proxy fight in June 2001. In October 2001, Willamette said that it was worth more: "value is in the $60-a-share range, but that they would consider an offer in the high-$50 range." Willamette sought out merger talks with another forest products company,

Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and ...

(GP), the largest in the world to avoid the Weyerhaeuser takeover."Willamette Reaches Agreement in Principal (sic) for Sale to Weyerhaeuser For $55.50 Per Share in Cash."
PR Newswire Association. Retrieved March 24, 2008. Willamette even talked with GP about Willamette buying the GP building materials businesses and greatly increasing Willamette's debt level."Willamette disappoints Weyerhaeuser"
CNN: Money Magazine, January 4, 2002. The combination with GP that was larger than all of Willamette's operations would have created a company with annual sales of around $12.5 billion. On December 13, 2001, Weyerhaeuser increased its offer to $55.00 per share, or $6.5 billion, in cash. Finally, in January 2002, Willamette Industries agreed to be bought by Weyerhaeuser for $55.50 per share, for a total cash equity value of approximately $6.08 billion.Rivera, Dylan. "Weyerhaeuser will acquire Willamette". ''

'', January 22, 2002. The deal also included Weyerhaeuser's assumption of approximately $1.53 billion of Willamette debt, making the total value of the deal approximately $7.61 billion. The deal closed in March of that year, ending a four-year process.

Company at buyout

At the time of the takeover by Weyerhaeuser, Willamette was the seventh largest

forest products A forest product is any material derived from forestry for direct consumption or commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or fodder for livestock. Wood, by far the dominant product of forests, is used for many purposes, such as wood fuel (e.g. in f ...

company in worldMcIntosh, Don
"Willamette Industries workers protest Weyerhaeuser invasion".
''

Northwest Labor Press The ''Northwest Labor Press'' is a newspaper which covers the American labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. It was known as the ''Portland Labor Press'' from 1900 to 1915, the ''Oregon Labor Press'' until 1986, and by its present name since th ...

'', June 15, 2001. with over 90 facilities across the United States. There were foreign operations in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, with the corporate headquarters in Portland, Oregon, in the

Wells Fargo Center Wells Fargo Center may refer to: *Wells Fargo Center (Los Angeles), California *Wells Fargo Center (Sacramento), California * Wells Fargo Center (San Francisco), California * Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California *Wells Fargo Cent ...

. Willamette Industries owned 1.7 million acres (6,900 km²) of forest land, and Duane C. McDougall served as the last chief executive officer of the company. As of June 15, 2001 the company had $4.6 billion in annual revenues and a market value of $5.35 billion.Parish, Bill
"Enron Lessons for Weyerhaeuser, Willamette Industries, the SEC and Arthur Andersen".
Parish & Company. January 24, 2002. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

References

External links

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Nintendo Misses Out On Wii.comWillamette Industries final SEC annual report
{{FormerORCompanies Manufacturing companies established in 1906 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2002 Defunct manufacturing companies based in Oregon Manufacturing companies based in Portland, Oregon Weyerhaeuser Defunct forest products companies of the United States Defunct pulp and paper companies Dallas, Oregon 1906 establishments in Oregon 2002 disestablishments in Oregon Pulp and paper companies of the United States